He has carved his name into the Las Vegas art scene

Las Vegas has been good to Tony Romeo, but luck had nothing to do with it.

The artist and Youngstown native relocated to the gambling mecca in 1993 because he sensed opportunity in a city that was fast becoming international in its restaurant, shopping and entertainment scenes.

It was a good move. Romeo’s distinctive paintings and wood-cut prints have been purchased by several high-end restaurants for decor, including Bix, Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and others owned by celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse. They also hang in the home of Bobby Baldwin, president of the Bellagio casino hotel; and at a Versace store.

Such sales have built a reputation for Romeo in a town where the money follows the winners.

His next triumph begins Oct. 21, when 10 of his abstract paintings will go up at the Saks Fashion Show mall on the fabled Strip.

He is also in the running for a deal to supply a mural to the Las Vegas transit system.

Romeo is back in Youngstown this week, where his parents live. If his name sounds familiar, it should. His father — also Tony Romeo — has taught generations of Youngstowners to dance at his studios in Youngstown and Boardman.

The younger Romeo is a graduate of Mooney High School and Youngstown State University, where he had a baseball scholarship. After college, he went to New York to pursue an art career. He then headed west to Los Angeles and then Las Vegas, where he has thrived.

That’s where he achieved the goal he had long been working toward — to live and work exclusively as a fine artist, creating art for the sake of art.

A stick-to-it drive, which he attributes to his Youngstown upbringing, paid off for him. When Romeo first came to Vegas, he worked as a doorman at Caesars Palace in the day and sold clothing in a store at night to makes end meet.

He paid tribute to Youngstown in two pieces he created in 2007 that abstractly depict the city’s steel mills.

“I love Youngstown, but I moved to Las Vegas because I wanted to reach the world,” said Romeo.

An abstract expressionist and impressionist, Romeo favors woodcuts, a Japanese art form. He will carve a block of wood and then transfer the image to paper by pressing it against the wood block with the back of a spoon — a tool he prefers for its unique ability to burnish interesting detail onto the finished product.

The part that is carved out of the block becomes the negative, or black part, of the image, and many of his woodcuts require multiple inkings because they are in several colors.

Being in the right place at the right time was a key factor in Romeo’s success. Las Vegas remains a place where people want to be, and the brilliant sun and desert landscape of Nevada inspire him on a daily basis.

But Romeo said that Youngstown, with its gray skies and Rust Belt weariness, also abounds with talented artists — and he hopes to inspire them. His advice? Just go after it. One major sale could launch a career as a fine artist.

And if it doesn’t? Well happiness is the biggest part of success.

As Romeo puts it, “To sell just one painting to someone you don’t know ... isn’t that fame?”